U.S. Constitution Exploration
Lesson Plans for learning about the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights
27 pages worth of lessons, activities, resources, and graphic organizers to help student-citizens understand the meaning and power of the U.S. Constitution.
Today Americans argue about the size and power of government, the guarantee of civil liberties and rights, the trade offs between security and liberty. The roots of these conversations and disagreements can be traced back to the Constitutional Convention and can even be found within the Constitution and Bill of Rights, themselves.
The College Board infuses the AP Government course with 9 foundational documents, but the thread that ties the entire course together is The U.S. Constitution including The Bill of Rights. We cover these two central documents in this pack, giving you and your students the tools necessary to know and understand these American cornerstones. As Jefferson wrote, a democracy is only as strong as the education of its people. And our knowledge and understanding of these documents allow us to better hold our nation to account to the promises of these documents.
The promises of democracy, equality, justice and liberty established in the The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are throughlines we will follow throughout all the other documents. Citizens should have a robust understanding of these documents to hold our current government to account. Students will need to have a thorough understanding of these documents to answer FRQ#4 on the AP exam where they will be asked to use their knowledge of these documents to support claims about American politics.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed some of the long held divisions in our country.
On one side are Americans who want to empower the central government to battle the pandemic. One the other hand, are those who value safeguarding individual rights as their highest priority and feel that the central government should be limited. These divisions echo the battles fought over the scope and power of a national government in 1787 in Philadelphia and continue to this day.
Use this guide to help your students understand the story of American politics. Scatter these documents throughout your class or use them in one consolidated unit. In our table of contents, we have included bookmarks (underlined like links) which will take you directly to the activities and resources for each of the foundational documents. Enjoy!
